Middle East Books: February 2009

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Breaking of Nations or Major Problems in the History of American Workers

Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century

Author: Robert Cooper

In this landmark book, Robert Cooper sets out his radical interpretation of our new international order. He argues that there are now three types of state: lawless "pre-modern" states; "modern" states that are fiercely protective of their sovereignty; and "post-modern" states such as those that operate on the basis of openness, law, and mutual security. The United States has yet to decide whether to embrace the "post-modern" world of interdependence, or pursue unilateralism and power politics.

Cooper shows that the greatest question facing our post-modern nations is how to deal with a world in which missiles and terrorists ignore borders and where Cold War alliances no longer guarantee security. When dealing with a hostile outside enemy, should civilized countries revert to tougher methods from an earlier era - force, preemptive attack, deception - in order to safeguard peaceful coexistence throughout the civilized world? The Breaking of Nations is a prescient examination of international relations in the twenty-first century.

THe New York Times

On the toughest issues, the trans-Atlantic divide really may be unbridgeable, at least until Tony Blair becomes president of Europe and installs Robert Cooper as his national security adviser. — Max Boot

Publishers Weekly

Cooper, a senior member of Tony Blair's cabinet, worries that the 21st century may wind up being the worst era in European history, as Western governments continue to lose control over the technology of mass destruction. Advocating "better politics rather than better technology" to combat the encroaching chaos created by unstable nation-states and rising terrorist organizations, he lays out a cogent argument for why the governments of Europe should present a united front and take an active role in promoting geopolitical stability, perhaps even through increased military presence. Only by pooling their resources, he suggests, can European nations offer a viable alternative to American policy mandates. (Feb.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Foreign Affairs

The United States has Fukuyama, Huntington, and Kagan as its prophets of the coming world order. Who does Europe have? The answer is Robert Cooper, a former adviser to Tony Blair and an EU diplomat. This small book of essays offers a sweeping interpretation of today's global predicament. Cooper argues that two revolutionary forces are transforming international relations: the breakdown of state control over violence, reflected in the growing ability of tiny private groups to wield weapons of mass destruction, and the rise of a stable, peaceful order in Europe that is not based on either the balance of power or the sovereignty of independent states. In this scheme, the Westphalian system of nation-states and power politics is being undermined on both sides — by a postmodern Europe and a premodern world of failed states and post-imperial chaos.

Cooper makes a good case that the growing threat of terrorism necessitates new forms of cooperation and a reconstructed international order that goes beyond the balance of power or hegemony. Stable order in the new age must be built on legitimate authority and more inclusive political identities. But apart from these postmodern urgings, Cooper's vision remains sketchy.

Kirkus Reviews

A slender but not slight consideration of Europe's future on a hostile planet. British diplomat Cooper, once the UK's ambassador to West Germany and now head of the government's Defence and Overseas Secretariat, posits a world divided not into first, second, and third parts, pace Chairman Mao, but into "pre-modern," "modern," and "postmodern": the first made up of such hopelessly backward, even failed states like Afghanistan, the next of distinct nation-states such as China, and the last of super, or perhaps supra, states-those that make up the European Union. These states coexist uneasily, pre-modern Rwanda alongside modern Argentina alongside postmodern Japan ("Unfortunately for Japan it is a postmodern country surrounded by states firmly locked into an earlier age," each with its own sense of destiny). The US stands apart, in its way, if only because it has vastly outspent the rest of the world militarily-and then, Cooper writes, spent more efficiently-so that "were all the rest of the world to mount a combined attack on the United States they [sic] would be defeated." Problem is, the world is changing; the most dangerous enemies of the peace are not states but nongovernmental groups, the most common wars civil and not imperial or state against state-and in any event, the world is probably no safer with one superpower than with many ("However admirable the United States may be-and for many it is the embodiment of freedom and democracy-would those qualities survive a long period of unilateral hegemony?"). In these three essays, Cooper wrestles with the implications, concluding that if Europe is to hold its own in this new world, it will have to have America's ear: "And that means weshall need more power, both military power and multilateral legitimacy." Recommended reading for policy wonks, realpolitikers, and other students of the modern (and pre-modern, and postmodern) world.

Major Problems in the History of American Workers: Documents and Essays

Author: Eileen Boris

This text, designed for courses in US labor history or the history of American workers, presents a carefully selected group of readings that allow students to evaluate primary sources, test the interpretations of distinguished historians, and draw their own conclusions. Major Problems in the History of American Workers follows the proven Major Problems format, with 14-15 chapters per volume, a combination of documents and essays, chapter introductions, headnotes, and suggested readings.

Friday, February 20, 2009

The Irony of Democracy or Refuge Denied

The Irony of Democracy: An Uncommon Introduction to American Politics

Author: Thomas R Dy

While most American politics texts address American politics from a pluralist perspective, THE IRONY OF DEMOCRACY: AN UNCOMMON INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN POLITICS, Fourteenth Edition, approaches the subject by addressing the theme of elitism and contrasting it with democratic theory and modern pluralist theory. Its key question is, "How democratic is American society?"

New interesting textbook: A Theory of Incentives in Regulation and Procurement or Applied Economics

Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust

Author: Sarah A Ogilvi

In May of 1939 the Cuban government turned away the Hamburg-America Line’s MS St. Louis, which carried more than 900 hopeful Jewish refugees escaping Nazi Germany. The passengers subsequently sought safe haven in the United States, but were rejected once again, and the St. Louis had to embark on an uncertain return voyage to Europe. Finally, the St. Louis passengers found refuge in four western European countries, but only the 288 passengers sent to England evaded the Nazi grip that closed upon continental Europe a year later. Over the years, the fateful voyage of the St. Louis has come to symbolize U.S. indifference to the plight of European Jewry on the eve of World War II.

Although the episode of the St. Louis is well known, the actual fates of the passengers, once they disembarked, slipped into historical obscurity. Prompted by a former passenger’s curiosity, Sarah Ogilvie and Scott Miller of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum set out in 1996 to discover what happened to each of the 937 passengers. Their investigation, spanning nine years and half the globe, took them to unexpected places and produced surprising results. Refuge Denied chronicles the unraveling of the mystery, from Los Angeles to Havana and from New York to Jerusalem.

Some of the most memorable stories include the fate of a young toolmaker who survived initial selection at Auschwitz because his glasses had gone flying moments before and a Jewish child whose apprenticeship with a baker in wartime France later translated into the establishment of a successful business in the United States. Unfolding like a compelling detective thriller, Refuge Denied is a must-readfor anyone interested in the Holocaust and its impact on the lives of ordinary people.

Publishers Weekly

The doomed ship St. Louis-carrying German-Jewish refugees and refused permission to dock in Cuba and Florida in 1939-became a potent symbol of global indifference to the fate of European Jewry on the eve of the Holocaust. While 288 of the more than 900 passengers found sanctuary in Great Britain, 620 were forced to return to mainland Europe, and close to half of those passengers sent to Belgium, France and Holland were murdered during the Holocaust. Among the survivors, a Miami-area retired baker and Korean War veteran, Herbert Karliner, got through WWII posing as a Catholic and working as a hired hand for a pro-Vichy farmer near Lyon. Another, Hannelore Klein, who in her 70s confesses to still feeling like a displaced person, was 12 when she was sent to Holland, survived Auschwitz (her mother was gassed) and returned to Amsterdam to live with her grandparents, Theresienstadt survivors. Prodigiously researched and generously illustrated with photographs-most from the St. Louis and the Westerbork internment camp-this valuable contribution to Holocaust studies provides emotionally satisfying closure as the authors, staffers at D.C.'s U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, track the passengers and give a human face to mass tragedy. (Oct. 20) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Killing the Black Body or Ellis Islands Famous Immigrants

Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty

Author: Dorothy Roberts

In Killing the Black Body, Dorothy Roberts gives a powerful and authoritative account of the on-going assault - both figurative and literal - waged by the American government and our society on the reproductive rights of Black women. From an intersection of charged vectors (race, gender, motherhood, abortion, welfare, adoption, and the law), Roberts addresses in her impassioned book such issues as: the notion of prenatal property imposed upon slave women by white masters; the unsavory association between birth control champion Margaret Sanger and the eugenics movement of the 1920s; the coercive sterilization of Black women (many of whom were unaware that they had undergone the procedure) under government welfare programs as late as the 1970s; the race and class implications of distributing risky, long-acting contraceptives, such as Norplant, through Medicaid; the rendering of reproduction as a crime of prosecuting women who expose their fetuses to drugs; the controversy over transracial adoption; the welfare debate (who should pay for reproduction?); and the promotion of the new birth technology (in vitro fertilization and egg donation) to serve infertile white couples.

Library Journal

From forced breeding and involuntary sterilization to the use of invasive methods of birth control (Norplant and Depo-Provera) and more recently welfare reform legislation, Rutgers law professor Roberts traces the history of social policies used by the dominant power structure to control black women's reproductive freedom. Her well-documented work convincingly reveals why black people, and women in particular, have reason to mistrust the medical establishment and government programs, especially those related to family planning. Roberts argues for an expanded concept of liberty that will "facilitate the processes of choice and self-determination" as well as protect individuals against government coercion. -- Faye Powell, Portland State University Library, Oregon

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

Roberts's exploration of the history of African-American women and reproductive rights is brilliant, controversial, and profoundly valuable. The author, a professor of law (Rutgers University), brings forth a view of black women wholly ignored by mainstream America. Beginning with slavery and moving to the present day, she argues that white America has perpetuated a legacy of pathological social violence against black women and their reproductive capabilities. Female slaves, Roberts asserts, were often bought with the express purpose of using them as breeders; white males profited by raping black women and selling their children. Later, in the first half of the 20th century, the eugenics movement turned contraception from a tool of women's liberation into a tool of control to cut birth rates among southern blacks, and as late as the 1970s black women were routinely sterilized by hysterectomies that were not medically necessary. More recently, poor black women living in urban areas have been forced by courts, doctors, and health care organizations to be implanted with the Norplant birth-control device; doctors frequently refuse to remove it on request. Roberts's arguments are especially convincing because they are so well researched and thoroughly dissected. Drawn from documented cases, African-American theorists, and media reports, Roberts's knowledge of her subject is total. Instead of painting black women as passive victims of this reproductive racism, she represents them through the image offered by a former slave, Anna Julia Cooper, who characterizes the black woman fighting to protect the bodies of her daughters as "an entrapped tigress." Roberts outlines an agenda for change in thefinal chapter, positioning the book as an important stepping-stone toward transforming the way black women and their children are treated in America."The denial of Black reproductive autonomy serves the interests of white supremacy," Roberts states, and she demands her reader rethink the relationship between race and reproduction.

	Acknowledgments
	Introduction	3
Ch. 1	Reproduction in Bondage	22
Ch. 2	The Dark Side of Birth Control	56
Ch. 3	From Norplant to the Contraceptive Vaccine: The New Frontier of Population Control	104
Ch. 4	Making Reproduction a Crime	150
Ch. 5	The Welfare Debate: Who Pays for Procreation?	202
Ch. 6	Race and the New Reproduction	246
Ch. 7	The Meaning of Liberty	294
	Notes	313
	Index	358

Books about: Organisations

Ellis Island's Famous Immigrants (Images of America Series)

Author: Barry Moreno

Since 1776, millions of immigrants have landed at America's shores. To this day, their practical contributions are still felt in every field of endeavor, including agriculture, industry, and the service trades. But within the great immigrant waves there also came plucky and talented individualists, artists, and dreamers. Many of these exceptional folk went on to win worldly renown, and their names live on in history. Ellis Island's Famous Immigrants tells the story of some of the best known of these legendary characters and highlights their actual immigration experience at Ellis Island. Celebrities featured within its pages include such entrepreneurs as Max Factor, Charles Atlas, and "Chef Boyardee"; Hollywood icons Pola Negri, Bela Lugosi, and Bob Hope; spiritual figures Father Flanagan and Krishnamurti; authors Isaac Asimov and Kahlil Gibran; painters Arshile Gorky and Max Ernst; and sports figures Knute Rockne and Johnny Weissmuller.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Virginia in the Vanguard or Imperial Life in the Emerald City

Virginia in the Vanguard: Political Leadership in the 400-Year-Old Cradle of American Democracy, 1981-2006

Author: Frank B Atkinson

Virginia in the Vanguard continues the story begun in The Dynamic Dominion, detailing the resurgence of Virginia's Democratic Party in the 1980s and the Republicans' efforts to turn back the gains made by Chuck Robb and Douglas Wilder. It closes with Democrat Tim Kaine taking the governor's seat and former Republican and Democratic governors George Allen and Mark Warner poised to enter the 2008 presidential primaries.

	Preface : flood tide of freedom
I	Robb, Wilder, and the Democratic decade : 1981-1992
1	Reversal of fortune : the Democratic Southern strategy	3
2	The watershed Robb victory of 1981	17
3	Improbable journey : Wilder's way to the top	47
4	Swinging suburbs : making money and making history	83
II	George Allen and the "Virginia renaissance" : 1993-1999
5	Reagan populism and the positive politics of reform	123
6	From insurgent to insider : the 1993 Allen landslide	153
7	John Warner and the politics of independence	179
8	New world : America's oldest legislature transformed	217
III	Mark Warner and the "sensible center" : 2000-2006
9	Taxing times and the tactic of bipartisanship	261
	Epilogue : a concluding reflection on Virginia's legacy of freedom	297

Interesting textbook: War on the Middle Class or Coloniality at Large

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone

Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran

The Green Zone, Baghdad, 2003: in this walled-off compound of swimming pools and luxurious amenities, Paul Bremer and his Coalition Provisional Authority set out to fashion a new, democratic Iraq. Staffed by idealistic aides chosen primarily for their views on issues such as abortion and capital punishment, the CPA spent the crucial first year of occupation pursuing goals that had little to do with the immediate needs of a postwar nation: flat taxes instead of electricity and deregulated health care instead of emergency medical supplies.

In this acclaimed firsthand account, the former Baghdad bureau chief of The Washington Post gives us an intimate portrait of life inside this Oz-like bubble, which continued unaffected by the growing mayhem outside. This is a quietly devastating tale of imperial folly, and the definitive history of those early days when things went irrevocably wrong in Iraq.

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

Mr. Chandrasekaran, an assistant managing editor of The Washington Post and the paper's former Baghdad bureau chief, spent nearly two years reporting from Iraq, and in Imperial Life in the Emerald City he draws a vividly detailed portrait of the Green Zone and the Coalition Provisional Authority…that becomes a metaphor for the administration's larger failings in Iraq…By focusing closely on the goals, initiatives and missteps of individuals involved in the Coalition Provisional Authority, Mr. Chandrasekaran is able to re-examine the mix of motives involved in the American invasion and the roles that hubris, idealism and denial played in shaping the occupation. His book gives the reader a visceral—sometimes sickening—picture of how the administration and its handpicked crew bungled the first year in postwar Iraq, showing how decisions made in that period contributed to a burgeoning insurgency and growing ethnic and religious strife.

The New York Times Book Review - Michael Goldfarb

It would have been worthwhile if Chandrasekaran had given us a greater sense of what he thought about overthrowing Hussein and, more to the point, what he felt upon returning to Washington after having seen the bloody result of its policies. But that is a philosophical difference I have with the author. This is a clearly written, blessedly undidactic book. It should be read by anyone who wants to understand how things went so badly wrong in Iraq.

Publishers Weekly

As the Baghdad bureau chief for the Washington Post, Chandrasekaran has probably spent more time in U.S.-occupied Iraq than any other American journalist, and his intimate perspective permeates this history of the Coalition Provisional Authority headquartered in the Green Zone around Saddam Hussein's former palace. He presents the tenure of presidential viceroy L. Paul Bremer between May 2003 and June 2004 as an all-too-avoidable disaster, in which an occupational administration selected primarily for its loyalty to the Bush administration routinely ignored the reality of local conditions until, as one ex-staffer puts it, "everything blew up in our faces." Chandrasekaran unstintingly depicts the stubborn cluelessness of many Americans in the Green Zone-like the army general who says children terrified by nighttime helicopters should appreciate "the sound of freedom." But he sympathetically portrays others trying their best to cut through the red tape and institute genuine reforms. He also has a sharp eye for details, from casual sex in abandoned offices to stray cats adopted by staffers, which enable both advocates and critics of the occupation to understand the emotional toll of its circuslike atmosphere. Thanks to these personal touches, the account of the CPA's failures never feels heavy-handed. (Sept. 22) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

What People Are Saying

"Rajiv Chandrasekaran has not given us "another Iraq book." He has given us a riveting tale of American misadventure. . . . He shows us American idealism and voyeurism, as well as the deadly results of American hubris. And by giving us the first full picture from inside the Green Zone, he depicts a mission doomed to failure before it had even been launched."
---Samantha Power, author of A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide

"This is a dazzling, important, and entertaining work of reportage about the American civilians who tried to remake Iraq, and about the strange, isolated city-state in Baghdad where they failed. Every American who wants to understand how and why things went so badly wrong in Iraq should read this book."
---Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars

"This amazing book pulls back the curtains of deception and reveals in stunning fashion what really went on inside the Emerald City in the crucial year after the military overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Chandrasekaran's reporting is vivid and relentless as he documents the mix of idealism, confidence, energy, hubris, political miscalculation, cultural blindness, and fantastical thinking of those who came to save Iraq yet made a difficult situation worse."
---David Maraniss, author of They Marched Into Sunlight

"An extraordinarily vivid and compelling anatomy of a fiasco. Imperial Life in the Emerald City is an indispensable saga of how the American liberation of Iraq turned to chaos, calamity, and civil war. Chandrasekaran takes us inside Baghdad's Green Zone as no one else has."
---Rick Atkinson, author of The Long Gray Line

Monday, February 16, 2009

Two Treatises of Government and a Letter Concerning Toleration or The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements

Two Treatises of Government and a Letter Concerning Toleration

Author: John Lock

Among the most influential writings in the history of Western political thought, John Locke's Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration remain vital to political debates today, more than three centuries after they were written. The complete texts appear in this volume, accompanied by interpretive essays by three prominent Locke scholars. Ian Shapiro's introduction places Locke's political writings in historical and biographical context. John Dunn explores both the intellectual context in which Locke wrote the Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration and the major interpretive controversies surrounding their meaning. Ruth Grant offers a comprehensive discussion of Locke's views on women and the family, and Shapiro contributes an essay on the democratic elements of Locke's political theory. Taken together, the texts and essays in this volume offer invaluable insights into the history of ideas and the enduring influence of Locke's political thought.

Author Biography: Ian Shapiro is William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor and chair, Department of Political Science, Yale University. John Dunn is professor of social and political science at Cambridge University. Ruth Grant is professor of political science at Duke University.

Rethinking the Western Tradition Series

Look this: Open Source for the Enterprise or Managing Industrial Knowledge

The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements

Author: David A Snow

The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements is a compilation of original, state-of-the-art essays by internationally recognized scholars. Covering a diverse range of topics in the field of social movement studies, this volume offers an illuminating guide to understanding the dynamics and operation of social movements within the modern, global world.

The abundance of social movement activity throughout the world, both violent and nonviolent, has made the study of social movements a valuable resource for helping students and scholars to engage and understand their own social world. Issues covered in this one volume include: historical, political, and cultural contexts; leadership; organizational dynamics; social networks and participation; consequences and outcomes; and synthetic overviews of major social movements, including labor, anti-war, women’s, religious, ethnic and national, and environmental movements.

	Contributors
	Acknowledgments
1	Mapping the Terrain	3
2	Protest in Time and Space: The Evolution of Waves of Contention	19
3	The Strange Career of Strain and Breakdown Theories of Collective Action	47
4	Political Context and Opportunity	67
5	The Cultural Contexts of Collective Action: Constraints, Opportunities, and the Symbolic Life of Social Movements	91
6	Resources and Social Movement Mobilization	116
7	Beyond the Iron Law: Rethinking the Place of Organizations in Social Movement Research	155
8	Leadership in Social Movements	171
9	Movement Allies, Adversaries, and Third Parties	197
10	Policing Social Protest	217
11	Bystanders, Public Opinion, and the Media	242
12	"Get up, Stand up": Tactical Repertoires of Social Movements	262
13	Diffusion Processes within and across Movements	294
14	Transnational Processes and Movements	311
15	Networks and Participation	339
16	The Demand and Supply of Participation: Social-Psychological Correlates of Participation in Social Movements	360
17	Framing Processes, Ideology, and Discursive Fields	380
18	Emotional Dimensions of Social Movements	413
19	Collective Identity, Solidarity, and Commitment	433
20	The Legislative, Organizational, and Beneficiary Consequences of State-Oriented Challengers	461
21	Personal and Biographical Consequences	489
22	The Cultural Consequences of Social Movements	508
23	The Consequences of Social Movements for Each Other	531
24	The Labor Movement in Motion	555
25	Feminism and the Women's Movement: A Global Perspective	576
26	Environmental Movements	608
27	Antiwar and Peace Movements	641
28	Ethnic and Nationalist Social Movements	666
29	Religious Movements	694
	Index	717

Sunday, February 15, 2009

There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster or Americas Presidents

There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster: Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina

Author: Gregory Squires

There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster is the first critical scholarly book on the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. The disaster will go down in record as one of the worst in American history, not least because of the government's generally inept and cavalier response. But it's also a huge story for other obvious reasons. Firstly, the impact of the hurricane was uneven, and race and class (and tied to this, poverty) were deeply implicated in the unevenness. It was not by accident that the poorest and blackest neighborhoods were the ones that were buried under water. Secondly, the response underscored the impoverishment of social policy (or what passes for it) in both George W. Bush's America and more specifically the Republican-dominated South. Thirdly, New Orleans is not just any place - it's a great American city with a rich and unique history. People care about the place and what happens there. Fourthly, what happened and what will happen there can tell us a greatdeal about the state of urban and regional planning in contemporary America.
The book, edited by two eminent scholars/authors, gathers together ten excellent scholars to put forth a multifaceted portrait of the social implications of the disaster. And the disaster was primarily social in nature, as the title reminds us. The book covers the response to the disaster and the roles that race and class played, its impact on housing, the historical context of urban disasters in America, the nature of contemporary metropolitan planning, what the hurricane has taught us about planning, the role of the vast prison system in all of this, the future of economic development, the roles of businessand the media, and how the hurricane disproportionately impacted female headed households. In total, it offers a critical and comprehensive social portrait of the disaster's catastrophic effects on New Orleans.

America's Presidents: Facts, Photos, and Memorabilia from the Nation's Chief Executives

Author: Chuck Wills

Colorful images, removable memorabilia, and authoritative but easy-to-understand text combines to tell the story of all of America's Commanders in Chiefs from George Washington to George W. Bush-their personalities, their politics, and their significant contributions.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Naked Public Square or The Broken Branch

Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America

Author: Richard John Neuhaus

Underlying the many crises in American life, writes Richard John Neuhaus, is a crisis of faith. It is not enough that more people should believe or that those who believe should believe more strongly. Rather, the faith of persons and communities must be more compellingly related to the public arena. "The naked public square"—which results from the exclusion of popular values from the public forum—will almost certainly result in the death of democracy.

The great challenge, says Neuhaus, is the reconstruction of a public philosophy that can undergird American life and America's ambiguous place in the world. To be truly democratic and to endure, such a public philosophy must be grounded in values that are based on Judeo-Christian religion. The remedy begins with recognizing that democratic theory and practice, which have in the past often been indifferent or hostile to religion, must now be legitimated in terms compatible with biblical faith.

Neuhaus explores the strengths and weaknesses of various sectors of American religion in pursuing this task of critical legitimation. Arguing that America is now engaged in an historic moment of testing, he draws upon Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish thinkers who have in other moments of testing seen that the stakes are very high—for America, for the promise of democratic freedom elsewhere, and possibly for God's purpose in the world.

An honest analysis of the situation, says Neuhaus, shatters false polarizations between left and right, liberal and conservative. In a democratic culture, the believer's respect for nonbelievers is not a compromise but a requirement of the believer's faith. Similarly, the democratic rights of those outside the communities of religious faith can be assured only by the inclusion of religiously-grounded values in the common life.

The Naked Public Square does not offer yet another partisan program for political of social change. Rather, it offers a deeply disturbing, but finally hopeful, examination of Abraham Lincoln's century-old question—whether this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.

Wall Street Journal

Richard John Neuhaus addresses the relationship of religion and democracy with a steadiness and vitality rare in such discussions....The Naked Public Square challenges us to consider afresh the relationship of religion and public life. This book is elegant in execution and sweeping in scope.

Choice

For those interested in the role of religion in American life, this book is a must.

New York Times Book Review

"A substantial book. It should be read by anyone concerned with the current debates over the emergence of the "new Christian right.""

Commentary

This is a large-minded book, and its sophistication and intelligence advance our understanding of the religion/politics issue far beyond the confusions and incomprehensions that dominate most discussions of the subject.

Theology Today

Whether readers support or oppose his major contentions, Neuhaus has skillfully produced a lively forum for our moral discourse regarding church-state relations and democratic values.

George F. Will

The book from which further debate about church-state relations should begin.

Books about: Managing Business Relationships 2nd Edition or Economics of the Law

The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America and How to Get it Back on Track

Author: Thomas E Mann

Congress is the first branch of government in the American system, write Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, but now it is a broken branch, damaged by partisan bickering and internal rancor. The Broken Branch offers both a brilliant diagnosis of the cause of Congressional decline and a much-needed blueprint for change, from two experts who understand politics and revere our institutions, but believe that Congress has become deeply dysfunctional.
Mann and Ornstein, two of the nations most renowned and judicious scholars of government and politics, bring to light the historical roots of Congress's current maladies, examining 40 years of uninterrupted Democratic control of the House and the stunning midterm election victory of 1994 that propelled Republicans into the majority in both House and Senate. The byproduct of that long and grueling but ultimately successful Republican campaign, the authors reveal, was a weakened institution bitterly divided between the parties. They highlight the dramatic shift in Congress from a highly decentralized, committee-based institution into a much more regimented one in which party increasingly trumps committee. The resultant changes in the policy process--the demise of regular order, the decline of deliberation, and the weakening of our system of checks and balances--have all compromised the role of Congress in the American Constitutional system. Indeed, Speaker Dennis Hastert has unabashedly stated that his primary responsibility is to pass the president's legislative program--identifying himself more as a lieutenant of the president than a steward of the house. From tax cuts to the war against Saddam Hussein to a Medicare prescriptiondrug benefit, the legislative process has been bent to serve immediate presidential interests and have often resulted in poorly crafted and stealthily passed laws. Strong majority leadership in Congress, the authors conclude, led not to a vigorous exertion of congressional authority but to a general passivity in the face of executive power.
A vivid portrait of an institution that has fallen far from the aspirations of our Founding Fathers, The Broken Branch highlights the costs of a malfunctioning Congress to national policymaking, and outlines what must be done to repair the damage.

The Washington Post - Robert G. Kaiser

… it is easy to recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Congress, how it works and how it should work. [Dennis] Hastert would be particularly well-served by spending a few hours with The Broken Branch.

Publishers Weekly

Until recently, one could be forgiven for thinking that the present Congress is essentially an arm of the Bush administration, according to Mann and Ornstein, nationally renowned congressional scholars from the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute, respectively. Their book argues persuasively that relentless partisanship and a disregard for institutional procedures have led Congress to be more dysfunctional than at any time in recent memory. Looking back to the arbitrary and sometimes authoritarian leadership of Democratic speaker Jim Wright and the Abscam scandals of the 1980s, the authors demonstrate how they presage the much worse abuses of power committed by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and superlobbyist Jack Abramoff. In outlining more than 200 years of congressional history, Mann and Ornstein sometimes allow just a sentence or two to explain the policies and philosophies of an important politician or even an entire party, even as they catalogue deviations from obscure points of procedure in extensive detail. Their book may be useful and enjoyable to the specialist, though recent conservative pushback on issues from the Harriet Miers nomination to warrantless wiretapping and immigration will make some wish the authors had had the opportunity to add a postscript. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The United States Congress has ceased to be a deliberative body, according to two eminent political scientists with some ideas about how to fix it. Mann (Brookings Institution) and Ornstein (American Enterprise Institute), both of whom arrived on Capitol Hill in 1969 with fellowships to study Congress, and have been doing so ever since, here review the evolution of Congress from the republic's founding to early 2006. Bipartisanship was already waning in the final years of the era of Democratic dominance, they argue. The Republican leadership, which was trying to be provocative in order to "nationalize" Congressional races, was often denied a role in drafting important legislation, while the Democrats used the rules to pass bills with little discussion. The authors note that Speaker Newt Gingrich's initiatives after the Republican landslide of 1994 were in the spirit of earlier reforms, de-emphasizing seniority and seeking to foster bipartisanship-but this attempt was abandoned. When George W. Bush won the presidency, House majority leaders saw themselves as mere agents of presidential policy. Party-line votes on important matters have since become the norm. Members of Congress now seem to feel they are in Washington to vote rather than to adequately discuss policy. Key pieces of legislation are badly written because amendments are not allowed. When they can, many Congressmen stay in Washington only three days a week, resulting in a decline in the quantity and quality of their work. Members of Congress have little interest in overseeing the executive branch or in how Congress functions; the latter neglect has occasioned a host of ethics scandals, which the authors discuss in detail. Theyalso suggest independent oversight of lobbyists and five-day congressional workweeks, while recognizing that polarization in Congress reflects polarization in the country as a whole. Most of the criticism here goes to Republicans-largely because they are in power-but the wealth of detail offered by Mann and Ornstein gives partisanship a good name.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Sovereignty or L branos del mal La escalofriante historia del secuestro de las hermanas de Thal a

Sovereignty: God, State, and Self

Author: Jean Bethke Elshtain

Throughout the history of human intellectual endeavor, sovereignty has cut across the diverse realms of theology, political thought, and psychology. From earliest Christian worship to the revolutionary ideas of Thomas Jefferson and Karl Marx, the debates about sovereignty—complete independence and self-government—have dominated our history.
In this seminal work of political history and political theory, leading scholar and public intellectual Jean Bethke Elshtain examines the origins and meanings of “sovereignty” as it relates to all the ways we attempt to explain our world: God, state, and self. Examining the early modern ideas of God which formed the basis for the modern sovereign state, Elshtain carries her research from theology and philosophy into psychology, showing that political theories of state sovereignty fuel contemporary understandings of sovereignty of the self. As the basis of sovereign power shifts from God, to the state, to the self, Elshtain uncovers startling realities often hidden from view. Her thesis consists in nothing less than a thorough-going rethinking of our intellectual history through its keystone concept.
The culmination of over thirty years of critically applauded work in feminism, international relations, political thought, and religion, Sovereignty opens new ground for our understanding of our own culture, its past, present, and future.

C. Robert Nixon - Library Journal

Elshtain (social & political ethics, Univ. of Chicago; Just War Against Terror) deals here with the origins and development of our current concept of political and personal sovereignty, tracing its history from Augustine to Nietzsche and noting the move toward absolute autonomy of the state and the individual. According to Elshtain, even individual sovereignty becomes tyranny without relationships and community. We are created to love and that puts a limit on our sovereignty, she writes; "if we refuse to observe a limit, we are destroyers." Elshtain reexamines the relevant writings of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and many others in light of her philosophical analysis. She also applies her insight to postmodernism, radical feminism, and other modern movements, showing in her approach a deep knowledge of her subject matter. An excellent scholarly, philosophical analysis of a difficult concept that Elshtain makes surprisingly accessible to readers outside her field; recommended primarily for academic and large public libraries.

Lнbranos del mal. La escalofriante historia del secuestro de las hermanas de Thalнa

Author: Ernestina Sodi

Uno de los secuestros que mayor consternaciуn ha causado en la opiniуn pъblica mexicana fue el de la escritora Ernestina Sodi y su hermana, la actriz Laura Zapata, perpetrado por la banda de secuestradores "Los Tiras", quienes se encuentran tras las rejas a raнz de la denuncia que ambas presentaron despuйs de su liberaciуn.

Las hermanas fueron privadas de su libertad la noche del 22 de septiembre de 2002 a la salida de un teatro, despuйs de asistir a un ensayo de la actriz; golpeadas y amedrentadas, fueron trasladadas a una casa que los secuestradores adaptaron para retener a sus vнctimas y donde permanecieron encerradas, con los ojos vendados, mientras los secuestradores iniciaban las negociaciones para pedir su rescate. Despuйs de transcurridos 18 dнas, y al no obtener respuesta de los familiares de sus vнctimas, los secuestradores liberaron a Laura Zapata. Sin embargo, Ernestina Sodi permaneciу cautiva durante tres meses, hasta que su hermana menor, la cantante y actriz Thalнa, completу la suma exigida.

Esos dнas Ernestina Sodi estuvo sometida a maltratos fнsicos y psicolуgicos que dejaron heridas importantes en su vida y la de su familia. Este libro es el recuento doloroso de su encierro. A travйs de sus pбginas penetramos en el mundo oscuro, violento, sin piedad de la delincuencia organizada; presenciamos la desesperaciуn, la impotencia, la rabia, el miedo infi nito, pero tambiйn la esperanza luminosa de la libertad. Acompaсamos a la autora, asidos a su escritura нntima y serena, en su firme caminar por la lнnea frбgil que separa la cordura de la demencia, la vida de la muerte. Somos testigos, ademбs, de su reconstrucciуn anнmica y corporal que comienza penosa, lenta, pero plena.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Democracy and Social Ethics or Legal Environment of Business

Democracy and Social Ethics

Author: Jane Addams

Much more than a social worker, more than a political activist, Jane Addams was a giant in the civic life of America. She was the founder of the founder of Chicago's Hull House. Through her efforts of delivering social services, she recognized both the incredible potential of our democracy and the challenges of living up to it. Democracy and Social Ethics, published in 1902, articulates the quandary that American democracy is forever trying to solve: how to deliver the promise to every American.

Legal Environment of Business

Author: Nancy K Kubasek

This is the only textbook that helps students develop a thorough understanding of the legal environment of business and enhances their ability to engage in critical thinking and ethical analysis.

The legal environment of business is thoroughly treated in an extremely reader-friendly manner; various topics include: the American legal system, dispute resolution, constitutional principles, cyberlaw, white-collar crime, contracts, sales, product and service liability, the law of property, agency law, labor-management relations, environmental law, securities trading and issuance, antitrust laws, and debtor-creditor relations.

An excellent desk reference for the legal departments of any business, this book also provides an interesting read for anyone interested in business and ethics.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Stones Cry Out or Pilgrims Path

The Stones Cry Out: A Cambodian Childhood, 1975-1980

Author: Molyda Szymusiak

In 1975, Molyda Szymusiak (her adoptive name), the daughter of a high Cambodian official, was twelve years old and leading a relatively peaceful life in Phnom Penh. Suddenly, on April 17, Khme Rouge radicals seized the capital and drove all its inhabitants into the countryside. The chaos that followed has been widely publicized, most notably in the movie The Killing Fields. Murderous brutality coupled with raging famine caused the death of more than two million people, nearly a third of the population. This powerful memoir documents the horror Cambodians experienced in daily life.

From the start, the author kept her identity a secret, assuming a "revolutionary" name to avoid being branded as an aristocrat. Her father, mother, aunt, and uncle struggled to save the 20 members of their two families, but one by one they starved or were executed, until only Molyda and three younger cousins survived.

Pilgrim's Path: Freemasonry and the Religious Right

Author: John J Robinson

It's a masterpiece...if you're interested in American Masonry and its impact on our country, this book is for you.--Brent Morris, The Scottish Rite Journal

Monday, February 9, 2009

Cicero or Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement

Cicero: On Duties

Author: Marcus Tullius Cicero

De Officiis (On Duties) is Cicero's last theoretical work and contains his analysis, in a Greek theoretical framework, of the political and ethical values of the Roman governing class in the late Republic. It has often been treated merely as a key to the Greek philosophical works that Cicero used, but this volume aims to render De Officiis, which had a profound impact upon subsequent political thinkers, more intelligible by explaining its relation to its own time and place. All the standard series features are present, including a wholly new translation, a concise introduction by a leading scholar, select bibliography, chronology, notes on vocabulary and brief biographies of the most prominent individuals mentioned in the text.

Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (Gender and American Culture Series)

Author: Ransby

One of the most important African American leaders of the twentieth century and perhaps the most influential woman in the civil rights movement, Ella Baker (1903-1986) was an activist whose remarkable career spanned fifty years and touched thousands of lives.

A gifted grassroots organizer, Baker shunned the spotlight in favor of vital behind-the-scenes work that helped power the black freedom struggle. She was a national officer and key figure in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and a prime mover in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Baker made a place for herself in predominantly male political circles that included W. E. B. DuBois, Thurgood Marshall, and Martin Luther King Jr., all the while maintaining relationships with a vibrant group of women, students, and activists both black and white.

In this deeply researched biography, Barbara Ransby chronicles Baker's long and rich political career as an organizer, an intellectual, and a teacher, from her early experiences in depression-era Harlem to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Ransby shows Baker to be a complex figure whose radical, democratic worldview, commitment to empowering the black poor, and emphasis on group-centered, grassroots leadership set her apart from most of her political contemporaries. Beyond documenting an extraordinary life, the book paints a vivid picture of the African American fight for justice and its intersections with other progressive struggles worldwide across the twentieth century.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

The Oxford Handbook of International Relations or The One Percent Doctrine

The Oxford Handbook of International Relations

Author: Christian Reus Smit

The Oxford Handbook of International Relations offers the most authoritative and comprehensive overview to date of the field of International Relations. The Handbook debates the nature of the field itself, critically engages with the major theories, surveys a wide spectrum of methods, addresses the relationship between scholarship and policy making, and examines the field's relation with cognate disciplines. In so doing the Handbook gives readers authoritative and critical introductions to the subject and establish a sense of the field as a dynamic realm of argument and inquiry.
The Handbook has two key and distinctive organizing principles. The first is its ground-breaking approach to the normative component in theorizing about International Relations. Earlier volumes have concentrated almost exclusively on theories as purely empirical or positive theories, with small sub-sections left for 'ethics and International Relations'. But all International Relations theories have both empirical and normative aspects; even methodological choices entail implicit normative commitments. Without this understanding, some of the arguments in International Relations are routinely miscast. The Oxford Handbook of International Relations offers a comprehensive survey of the field that deepens our understanding of how empirical and normative theorizing interact to constitute International Relations as a field of study.
A second organizing principle is the analysis of how different perspectives have developed in relation to one another. Previous overviews of the field have treated contending theories and methods as isolated bodies of thought, or organized them into stylized 'great debates'. Butthese approaches obscure the dynamic interplay, conversation, and contestation between different perspectives. The Handbook examines this interplay, with chapter authors probing how their theory or approach has been affected by contestation with, and borrowing from, other approaches. In doing so it shows how diversity within International Relations has promoted, or perhaps sometimes stultified, progress in the field.
The Oxford Handbook of International Relations advances a markedly different perspective on the field of International Relations and will be essential for reading for those interested in the advanced study of global politics and international affairs.

The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11

Author: Ron Suskind

and/or stickers showing their discounted price. More about bargain books

Saturday, February 7, 2009

The Great Unraveling or The Politics of United States Foreign Policy

The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century

Author: Paul Krugman

In this long-awaited work, award-winning economist and columnist Paul Krugman challenges us to take on George Bush and the radical right. Drawing from his New York Times columns, he chronicles how the boom economy unraveled: how exuberance gave way to pessimism, how the age of corporate heroes gave way to corporate scandals, and how fiscal responsibility collapsed. Krugman asks how it was possible for a country with so much going for it to head downhill so fast and finds the answer in the agenda of the Bush Administration.

Krugman began writing his New York Times column in 2000, demonstrating that he is one of the most well-informed and trenchant commentators in America. From his account of the secret history of the California energy crisis to his devastating dissections of the Bush Administration's dishonesty on everything from tax cuts to the war on terrorism, Krugman tells the uncomfortable truth about how the United States lost its way amid economic disappointment, bad leadership, and deceit. This unprecedented work of social and political history sets the first years of the Twenty-first Century in a stark, new light.

New York Review of Books

....It seems slightly scandalous that Krugman has persisted in noting that the present administration has been moving the lion's share of the money to an array of corporate interests distinguished by the greed of their CEOs, an indifference toward their workers, and boardroom conviction that it is the welfare state that is ruining the country. Krugman has been strident. He has been shrill. He has lowered the dignity of the commentariat. How refreshing.
— Russell Baker

The New York Times

Krugman's best columns showcase his fluency in economics, analytical power and willingness to go out on a limb.—Peter Beinart

Publishers Weekly

"This is not, I'm sorry to say, a happy book," says Krugman in the introduction to this collection of essays culled from his twice-weekly New York Times op-ed column, and indeed, the majority of these short pieces range from moderately bleak political punditry to full-on "the sky is falling" doom and gloom. A respected economist, Krugman dissects political and social events of the past decade by watching the dollars, and his ideas are emphatic if not always well argued. He has a somewhat boyish voice and a pleasingly enthusiastic tone, although his enthusiasm sometimes leads him to take liberties with punctuation. The essays are grouped thematically instead of chronologically, which gives this audio adaptation a scattershot feel. Since these pieces were written over a long stretch of time, certain key ideas recur quite often-political reporters don't pay enough attention to the real news, the Bush administration is dishonest, big corporations are inherently untrustworthy-and can become tedious. To his credit, Krugman is not entirely partisan-he reveals himself to be a free-market apologist-and even listeners who disagree with most of the things he says will likely be taken in by his warm and energetic delivery. Simultaneous release with the Norton hardcover (Forecasts, Aug. 18). (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Foreign Affairs

A Princeton economist turned New York Times columnist, Krugman combines colorful writing with astute economic analysis. This book is a collection of his columns from 2000 to 2003 (plus some earlier articles written for non-economists) with new introductory commentary. Krugman is a self-conscious outsider, an iconoclast who offers trenchant commentary on bad policy and bad business behavior, and much of the material here concerns what he considers the Bush administration's systematic deception of the public. In the introduction, he posits the existence of a revolutionary right-wing conspiracy — a term he does not use lightly. His commentary ranges from developments in Japan and Europe to financial crises and foreign trade policy, areas in which Krugman has made important contributions as an economist. He emerges as a strong, insightful critic of an unqualified "market-knows-best" world view.

Library Journal

Krugman, twice-weekly op-ed columnist for the New York Times and a Princeton economics teacher, shares his take on President Bush and the radical right and how the United States has "lost its way amid economic disappointment, bad leadership, and deceit." The book contains more than 100 of the author's Times columns published between January 2000 and January 2003 and a few extras published in Fortune magazine and at Slate.com, plus his added commentary that freshens the material. The articles cover the gamut of national economic and political issues that dominated the period, including the California energy crisis, the Bush administration's tax cuts, and the war on terrorism. Krugman, who is adamantly anti-right-wing, draws on his solid economics training and experience in these credible pieces, which transcend the rant that sadly fills today's political commentaries. Highly recommended for university and larger public libraries.-Dale Farris, Groves, TX Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

What People Are Saying

Paul A. Samuelson
The new Krugman book documents why this top-drawer academic economist deserves at least one Pulitzer Prize for his accurate Times op-ed columns that are a lone voice, telling things as they are and debunking Washington policies that are neither compassionate nor conservative. Plutocratic democracy is in the saddle. Rx. Krugman twice a week and in this coherent sum-up on relevant 2003-2010 economics. Buy. Read. Ponder. Benefit.

Molly Ivins
You need to read this book, and when you do, you'll have only one response: it's time to get mad, for most of the media are in denial about how far the takeover of this country by the radical right has already progressed.

Anthony Lewis
Paul Krugman is the indispensable American columnist, a voice of truth in a political world of lies and calculated injustice. This book is even better. It makes the case, unrestrained by deference, that a revolutionary right-wing movement is out to transform the United States-and is succeeding, rolling over a supine press and political opposition.

James Carville
If I had a tenth of Paul Krugman's brain and a twentieth his courage, I'd be the happiest person on the face of the Earth!

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
Paul Krugman is the great discovery of recent American journalism. Lively, lucid, witty, superbly informed, his commentary on the state of the union is required reading for anyone concerned about the American future.

David Levering Lewis
The title of Paul Krugman's The Great Unraveling might well have been The Great Usurpation. In a republic hijacked by the radical right whose leaders reject the legitimacy of our current political system, Paul Krugman's coruscant book calls for a "great revulsion" across the land before it is too late.

Book review: Seven Secrets to Raising a Happy and Healthy Child or Tattoos Desire and Violence

The Politics of United States Foreign Policy

Author: Jerel A Rosati

The definitive work on how U.S. foreign policy is made, THE POLITICS OF UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY utilizes three levels of analysis demonstrating how government, society, and the historical-global environment impact the real world of politics and the policymaking process. Completely revised, updated, and condensed to integrate coverage of the George W. Bush Administration years, September 11th, the war on terror, and the Iraq War, this new edition blends substance, history, and theory in a lively narrative that is comprehensive, accessible, and informative. Chapters focus on significant topics such as the military, the intelligence community, foreign economic policymaking, civil liberties vs. national security, and the impact of electoral politics (such as the controversial 2000 presidential elections) on foreign policy. THE POLITICS OF UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY has been used throughout Europe and Asia as well as in such prestigious U.S. programs as the National War College, the Foreign Service Institute, and the U.S. Fulbright American Studies Institute on U.S. Foreign Policy, "It is really the best single source on all aspects of the policy process." -- Robert Soofer, Professor of National Security Strategy, National War College, Washington, D.C. "This is the single best textbook for one-stop shopping on the making of American foreign policy after 9/11, not just for American students, but for students around the world." -- Andrew Bennett, Professor of Government, Georgetown University and former Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

Pt. I	Introduction	1
1	The Politics of U.S. Foreign Policy	2
Pt. II	The Government and the Policymaking Process	25
2	The Paradox of Presidential Power	26
3	Presidential Management and the NSC Process	72
4	The State Department at Home and Abroad	107
5	The Military Establishment	134
6	The Intelligence Community	183
7	The Foreign Economic and Cultural Bureaucracy	229
8	Executive Branch Policymaking	249
9	Congress and Legislative-Executive Relations	278
10	The Rest of Government	335
Pt. III	The Society and Domestic Politics	357
11	The Public and Its Beliefs	358
12	Political Participation and Electoral Politics	407
13	Group Politics	428
14	National Security and the Exercise of Civil Liberties	471
15	The Media and the Communications Process	489
16	The Domestic Political Process	546
Pt. IV	The Global Environment and Future Politics of U.S. Foreign Policy	567
17	The Global Environment and American Power	568

Friday, February 6, 2009

The Case of Abraham Lincoln or Unconventional Wisdom

The Case of Abraham Lincoln: A Story of Adultery, Murder and the Making of a Great President

Author: Julie M Fenster

The year 1856 was a pivotal one for this country, witnessing the birth of the Republican Party as we know it. But it was also a critical year in the troubled political life of Abraham Lincoln. As a lawyer, he tried his most scandalous murder case. At the same time, he made a decision which unleashed his soaring abilities for the first time, a decision which reverberates to this day: whether or not to join the new Republican Party. The Case of Abraham Lincoln offers the first-ever account of the suspenseful Anderson Murder Case, and Lincoln's role in it. Bestselling historian Fenster not only examines the case that changed Lincoln's fate, but portrays his day-to-day life as a circuit lawyer and how it shaped him as a politician. In a book that draws a picture of Lincoln in court and at home during that memorable season of 1856, Fenster also offers a close-up look at Lincoln's political work, much of it masterful, some of it adventurous, in building the party that would change his fate - and that of the nation.

Booklist

Fenster's absorbing chronicle follows two tracks: Lincoln's reentry into the tumultuous political wars in Illinois, as Democrats, Know-Nothings, and the newly formed Republican Party vied for power; and how the death of a Springfield blacksmith evolved into a sensational murder trial. When the two tracks merge, Fenster illustrates Lincoln's emergence as a cagey politician and eloquent antislavery voice with an enhanced national reputation. This is a worthy addition to our ever-expanding knowledge concerning America's secular saint.

Randall M. Miller - Library Journal

Fenster uses the new complete edition of Lincoln's legal papers, as well as newspapers, letters, and memoirs, to weave a spellbinding tale of alleged adultery, murder, legal practices, personal rivalries, and political ambitions in the mid-1850s-and of Lincoln's emergence as a national political figure. In doing so, she brings us as close to the social and political culture of the day as possible. Although she relies too much on memoirs to depict a Lincoln much admired as a lawyer of ready wit, unimpeachable integrity, and astute judgment, she also mines the sources deeply to discover a small-town America unsure about male-female relationships, strangers in town, and "truth." As in Brian Dirck's Lincoln the Lawyer, among other recent works, she shows how Lincoln's studying of human nature, reading, and time on the legal circuit prepared him for public life. More important, she makes the most persuasive case yet that Lincoln's argument on the need to face down Southern threats of disunion was essential to holding together the disparate elements of the rickety new Republican Party and gave Lincoln national prominence before the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Her analysis of Lincoln's "lost speech" of 1856 is simply brilliant. The verdict: a captivating and compelling book that's highly recommended for public and academic libraries.

Kirkus Reviews

Through the lens of a sensational 1856 Springfield, Ill., murder case, a historian focuses on Abraham Lincoln the lawyer and politician, four years before his election to the presidency. Was blacksmith George Anderson slowly poisoned by his adulterous wife before her lover, Anderson's own impatient nephew, finally finished him off with a bloody hammer? The local citizenry certainly thought so. After declining an offer to aid the beleaguered state's attorney, Lincoln joined the defense and devised the crucial strategy that kept questions about possible adultery out of the trial, destroying the prosecution's theory about motive and ultimately freeing the defendants. This lurid case was one of many in the prairie lawyer's crowded practice, and Fenster (Race of the Century: The Heroic True Story of the 1908 New York to Paris Automobile Race, 2005, etc.) follows Lincoln and other colorful members of the Illinois Bar as they trail after the traveling Circuit Court. Simultaneously, the author charts a second, more fateful, track: the speech-making tour that resuscitated Lincoln's political career. Following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act-which nullified the Missouri Compromise and destroyed the Whig Party-and beginning with his stirring "Lost Speech" at the state's Anti-Nebraska Bloomington Convention, Lincoln traveled throughout Illinois on behalf of John C. Fremont, candidate of the nascent Republican Party, attempting to thread the needle among outright abolitionists, pro-slavery Buchanan Democrats and the anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant Know-Nothing Party headed by former President Millard Fillmore. He couldn't persuade the critical swing state to go for his candidate, but this tourturned him into the Party's premier Western spokesman, put him first in line to challenge popular Senator Stephen A. Douglas and ultimately led to his nomination for president. Already a successful, mature attorney whose talent and insight tipped the balance in People v. Anderson and Anderson, Lincoln began in 1856 his transformation into a master politician whose deep understanding of our founding documents and whose genius at translating their meaning for his fellow countrymen would make an even greater difference for the nation. An unexpected, odd-angle approach to Lincoln that proves marvelously insightful. First printing of 75,000

What People Are Saying

Richard Carwardine
"As a leading lawyer and an architect of the new Republican party in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln rarely felt the twin demands of electoral politics and the law more forcefully than in 1856, or met them with more purpose. Julie Fenster tells the interwoven story of that year's election campaign and the lurid case of a murdered Springfield blacksmith with compelling verve."--(Richard Carwardine, award-winning author of Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power)

Richard E. Hart
"A real page-turner, bringing alive Lincoln's world before his national fame. Fenster transports us to 1856 Illinois, describing the colorful life of Lincoln and his fraternity of circuit riding lawyers as they try cases and help birth the Republican Party. The suspense and storytelling are remarkable. Interwoven is a murder mystery -- the story of an adulterous wife, the murder of her blacksmith husband and Lincoln's defense. Looking for the emergence of Lincoln? Look here."--(Richard E. Hart, President, Abraham Lincoln Association)

Book review: Middle Path Cookbook or Margaret Fultons Kitchen

Unconventional Wisdom: Facts and Myths about American Voters

Author: Karen M Kaufmann

Late deciders go for the challenger; turnout helps the Democrats; the gender gap results from a surge in Democratic preference among women--these and many other myths are standard fare among average citizens, political pundits, and even some academics. But are these conventional wisdoms--familiar to anyone who watches Sunday morning talk shows--really valid?
Unconventional Wisdom offers a novel yet highly accessible synthesis of what we know about American voters and elections. It not only provides an integrated overview of the central themes in American politics--parties, polarization, turnout, partisan bias, campaign effects, swing voters, the gender gap, and the youth vote--it upends many of our fundamental preconceptions. Most importantly, it shows that the American electorate is much more stable than we have been led to believe, and that the voting patterns we see today have deep roots in our history. Throughout, the book provides comprehensive information on voting patterns; illuminates (and corrects) popular myths about voters and elections; and details the empirical foundations of conventional wisdoms that many understand poorly or not at all.
Written by three experts on American politics, Unconventional Wisdom serves as both a standard reference and a concise overview of the subject. Both informative and witty, the book is likely to become a standard work in the field, essential reading for anyone interested in American politics.

Preface     vii
Facts and Myths about American Voters: An Introduction     3
Americans Hate to Love Their Party, but They Do!     19
Are American Voters Polarized?     47
Who Swings?     67
Soccer Moms and Other Myths about the Gender Gap     93
The Young and Not-So-Restless Voters     115
The Partisan Bias of Turnout     145
Campaign Effects in the Twenty-First Century     163
Hard Facts and Conventional Wisdom as We Look to the Future     191
Appendices     201
Notes     217
Bibliography     237
Index     257

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights or Five Years of My Life

James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights

Author: Richard Labunski

Today we hold the Constitution in such high regard that we can hardly imagine how hotly contested was its adoption. Now Richard Labunski offers a dramatic account of a time when the entire American experiment hung in the balance, only to be saved by the most unlikely of heroes--the diminutive and exceedingly shy James Madison.
Here is a vividly written account of not one but several major political struggles which changed the course of American history. Labunski takes us inside the sweltering converted theater in Richmond, where for three grueling weeks, the soft-spoken Madison and the charismatic Patrick Henry fought over whether Virginia should ratify the Constitution. Madison won the day by a handful of votes, mollifying Anti-Federalist fears by promising to add a bill of rights to the Constitution. To do this, Madison would have to win a seat in the First Congress, which he did by a tiny margin, allowing him to attend the First Congress and sponsor the Bill of Rights.
Packed with colorful details about life in early America, this compelling and important narrative is the first serious book about Madison written in many years. It will return this under-appreciated patriot to his rightful place among the Founding Fathers and shed new light on a key turning point in our nation's history.

The New York Times - Gary Rosen

A virtue of Labunski's account is the generous attention he gives to Anti-Federalist luminaries like Henry, George Mason and Richard Henry Lee - figures too often overlooked in our reverential regard for the founding. For those used to thinking of the Bill of Rights as carved in stone, it is also instructive to see just how large a role accident played in its creation. The 10 amendments familiar to us started off as 17 in the House and were reduced to 12 by the Senate. The first two of these - on the size of the House and Congressional pay - didn't pass muster in the states, and so the third recommended amendment became, as if by fate, our famous First.

Publishers Weekly

It will come as little surprise to learn that Poe is a veteran Broadway performer: in reading Labunski's chronicle of James Madison's efforts to ratify the Constitution and pass the Bill of Rights, his voice echoes with effortless assurance, carrying into the virtual back row of any room. Thankfully, Poe mostly avoids the vocal equivalent of theatrical preening and posing. His reading is careful, unassuming and avoids wholly unnecessary showboating. Labunski's narrative revolves around Madison's struggle with fellow Virginian Patrick Henry over ratification, and Poe does a fine job of conveying the steadily ratcheting tension of their battle. Poe colors Labunski's tale with an appropriate array of significant pauses, emphases and hushed mock-whispers, bringing his book to life without resorting to overworked theatrical tricks. He may be a stage veteran, but Poe's reading is anything but stagy. Simultaneous release with the Oxford hardcover (Reviews, May 8). (July) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

James Madison played an important role in both the development of the U.S. Constitution and the creation of its first ten amendments, i.e., the Bill of Rights. Relying on primary sources, Labunski (Sch. of Journalism & Telecommunications, Univ. of Kentucky: The Second Constitutional Convention: How the American People Can Take Back Their Government) carefully and lucidly examines how Madison and his political supporters and opponents (mostly Anti-Federalists) shaped the initial parameters of the Constitution and then further expressed their constitutional philosophies in the amendments that followed. Seven of the ten chapters focus on activities prior to the introduction of the Bill of Rights. In his thorough coverage of the activities of the Virginia Ratifying Convention, Labunski offers intriguing discussions of constitutional debates and provides an understanding of the political and social context of the early constitutional polity. He finds that Madison and other Federalists used strategies that would ensure adoption of constitutional ideas in both Virginia and other parts of the nation. He then goes on to examine Madison's transformation from opponent of amendments to the Constitution to a central advocate in the U.S. House of Representatives for passage of what would become the Bill of Rights. A highly recommended analysis that will be useful for public and academic libraries. Steven Puro, St. Louis Univ. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

1	The Philadelphia Convention	3
2	The reluctant candidate	24
3	The road to Richmond	48
4	The Virginia ratifying convention	67
5	The ratification vote	96
6	The anti-federalists fight back	120
7	The election	147
8	Madison introduces the Bill of Rights	178
9	Congress proposes the Bill of Rights	213
10	Ratification of the Bill of Rights	242
11	Epilogue	256

Go to: Angel behind the Rocking Chair or Congratulations You Have Cancer

Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantanamo

Author: Murat Kurnaz

In October 2001, nineteen-year-old Murat Kurnaz traveled to Pakistan to visit a madrassa. During a security check a few weeks after his arrival, he was arrested without explanation and for a bounty of $3,000, the Pakistani police sold him to U.S. forces. He was first taken to Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he was severely mistreated, and then two months later he was flown to Guantanamo as Prisoner #61. For more than 1,600 days, he was tortured and lived through hell. He was kept in a cage and endured daily interrogations, solitary confinement, and sleep deprivation. Finally, in August 2006, Kurnaz was released, with acknowledgment of his innocence. Told with lucidity, accuracy, and wisdom, Kurnaz's story is both sobering and poignant--an important testimony about our turbulent times when innocent people get caught in the crossfire of the war on terrorism.

The Washington Post - Juliet Wittman

Kurnaz's account of his imprisonment is almost unbearably painful to read, precisely because his tone is so measured and low-key. He endured beatings, waterboarding, electric shock, isolation and the disruption of all sense of time and space. He was asked the same meaningless questions again and again…It is tempting to think of Kurnaz's story as exaggerated, but almost everything he describes jibes with the reports of other detainees and of human rights groups. This is a book politicians should read, and it should inspire anguished soul-searching among the rest of us.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Rivers of Empire or Development Geography and Economic Theory

Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West

Author: Donald Worster

When Henry David Thoreau went for his daily walk, he would consult his instincts on which direction to follow. More often than not his inner compass pointed west or southwest. "The future lies that way to me," he explained, "and the earth seems more unexhausted and richer on that side." In his own imaginative way, Thoreau was imitating the countless young pioneers, prospectors, and entrepreneurs who were zealously following Horace Greeley's famous advice to "go west." Yet while the epic chapter in American history opened by these adventurous men and women is filled with stories of frontier hardship, we rarely think of one of their greatest problems--the lack of water resources. And the same difficulty that made life so troublesome for early settlers remains one of the most pressing concerns in the western states of the late-twentieth century.
The American West, blessed with an abundance of earth and sky but cursed with a scarcity of life's most fundamental need, has long dreamed of harnessing all its rivers to produce unlimited wealth and power. In Rivers of Empire, award-winning historian Donald Worster tells the story of this dream and its outcome. He shows how, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Mormons were the first attempting to make that dream a reality, damming and diverting rivers to irrigate their land. He follows this intriguing history through the 1930s, when the federal government built hundreds of dams on every major western river, thereby laying the foundation for the cities and farms, money and power of today's West. Yet while these cities have become paradigms of modern American urban centers, and the farms successful high-tech enterprises,Worster reminds us that the costs have been extremely high. Along with the wealth has come massive ecological damage, a redistribution of power to bureaucratic and economic elites, and a class conflict still on the upswing. As a result, the future of this "hydraulic West" is increasingly uncertain, as water continues to be a scarce resource, inadequate to the demand, and declining in quality.
Rivers of Empire represents a radically new vision of the American West and its historical significance. Showing how ecological change is inextricably intertwined with social evolution, and reevaluating the old mythic and celebratory approach to the development of the West, Worster offers the most probing, critical analysis of the region to date. He shows how the vast region encompassing our western states, while founded essentially as colonies, have since become the true seat of the American "Empire." How this imperial West rose out of desert, how it altered the course of nature there, and what it has meant for Thoreau's (and our own) mythic search for freedom and the American Dream, are the central themes of this eloquent and thought-provoking story--a story that begins and ends with water.

New interesting book: My Kitchen in Spain or Floyds India

Development, Geography, and Economic Theory

Author: Paul Krugman

Why do certain ideas gain currency in economics while others fall by the wayside? Paul Krugman argues that the unwillingness of mainstream economists to think about what they could not formalize led them to ignore ideas that turn out, in retrospect, to have been very good ones.

Krugman examines the course of economic geography and development theory to shed light on the nature of economic inquiry. He traces how development theory lost its initial influence after it became clear that many of the theory's main insights could not be clearly modeled, and concludes with a commentary on areas where further inquiry looks most promising.

The Ohlin Lectures

Booknews

Consists of heavily revised versions of three lectures the author (economics, Stanford U.) delivered at the Stockholm School of Economics in 1992, concerning the fall and rise of development economics, the problems of economic geography, and models and metaphors. 5.5x8". Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

	Acknowledgements
	Preface
Pt. 1	The Condition of the World	1
1	The Old World Order	7
2	The New World Order	16
3	Security in the New World	55
Pt. 2	The Conditions of Peace: Twenty-First Century Diplomacy	81
Pt. 3	Epilogue: Europe and America	153
	Notes	173
	Index	176

	Introduction to the Illinois Edition
	Prefatory Note	3
	Introduction	5
1	Charitable Effort	11
2	Filial Relations	35
3	Household Adjustment	48
4	Industrial Amelioration	63
5	Educational Methods	80
6	Political Reform	98
	Index	121

	Foreword
1	The Exodus	3
2	Daughters of Pol Pot	45
3	The Agony	87
4	Time Worn Away	141
5	Wolves Among Themselves	177
6	Strangers in Our Own Land	213
	Epilogue: Orphans in Search of a Family	239
	Historical Note	247

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century

THe New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Foreign Affairs

Kirkus Reviews

Table of Contents:

Major Problems in the History of American Workers: Documents and Essays

Friday, February 20, 2009

The Irony of Democracy: An Uncommon Introduction to American Politics

Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust

Publishers Weekly

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty

Library Journal

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

Table of Contents:

Ellis Island's Famous Immigrants (Images of America Series)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Virginia in the Vanguard: Political Leadership in the 400-Year-Old Cradle of American Democracy, 1981-2006

Table of Contents:

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

The New York Times Book Review - Michael Goldfarb

Publishers Weekly

What People Are Saying

Monday, February 16, 2009

Two Treatises of Government and a Letter Concerning Toleration

The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements

Table of Contents:

Sunday, February 15, 2009

There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster: Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina

America's Presidents: Facts, Photos, and Memorabilia from the Nation's Chief Executives

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America

Wall Street Journal

Choice

New York Times Book Review

Commentary

Theology Today

George F. Will

The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America and How to Get it Back on Track

The Washington Post - Robert G. Kaiser

Publishers Weekly

Kirkus Reviews

Table of Contents:

Friday, February 13, 2009

Sovereignty: God, State, and Self

C. Robert Nixon - Library Journal

Lнbranos del mal. La escalofriante historia del secuestro de las hermanas de Thalнa

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Democracy and Social Ethics

Table of Contents:

Legal Environment of Business

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Stones Cry Out: A Cambodian Childhood, 1975-1980

Table of Contents:

Pilgrim's Path: Freemasonry and the Religious Right

Monday, February 9, 2009

Cicero: On Duties

Table of Contents:

Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (Gender and American Culture Series)

Sunday, February 8, 2009

The Oxford Handbook of International Relations

Table of Contents:

The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11

Saturday, February 7, 2009

The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century

New York Review of Books

The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Foreign Affairs

Library Journal

What People Are Saying

The Politics of United States Foreign Policy

Table of Contents:

Friday, February 6, 2009

The Case of Abraham Lincoln: A Story of Adultery, Murder and the Making of a Great President

Booklist